Monday, June 27, 2011

Chad Billingsley did his best out there tonight, going six innings with 4 H, 0 ER, 4 Ks and 2 BBs, just trying to give the Dodgers' offense enough time to try and eke out a run or two.

Which they did in the first inning, when they scored twice off of an Andre Ethier reach-off-an-error, scoring Tony Gwynn. And again that inning, when Ethier scored after Matt Kemp doubled.

And again in the third, when James Loney singled to right to score Ethier.

And again two times in the fourth, both when Trent Oeltjen (who tonight almost became the first Australian-born Dodger to hit for the cycle) hit a solo HR, as well as when Casey Blake singled to score Gwynn a second time.

And again three separate times in the fifth, off of an AJ Ellis single (scoring Juan Uribe), a Dee Gordon single (scoring Oeltjen), and a wild pitch (scoring Ellis).

And again two times in the sixth, off a Uribe single (scoring Kemp) and a Oeltjen sac fly (scoring Loney).

And again twice in the seventh, off of solo shots from Blake and Kemp (his league-leading 22nd).

And again three times in the eighth, off of a Gordon double (scoring Oeltjen), a Gwynn single (scoring Ellis), and a Dioner Navarro sac fly (scoring Gordon).

Fifteen runs, fifteen separate scoring plays. 25 hits, tying a club record and setting a MLB-season high. And a shutout, thanks to Bills and company (including a pair of sweet defensive plays anchored by Dee Gordon (who did make one error as well), including a strike to nail Alexi Casilla at the plate, as well as an unconventional double play tag following a deflection off of Billingsley's glove (shoot, go check out the highlight, which is easier to watch than for me to try to explain)). On a day of disastrous Dodgers downers in the news, this was a nice capper. Thanks, boys.